US Army-Flying-Saucer-Study_1949

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DAILY RADIO DIGEST

2916

Telephone Ext. 4759

HIGHLIGHTS

4 April 1949

By Saturday, Sec. Johnson already had eliminated nine committees and boards of Armed Services as useless. A minority group here (Berlin) feels Russians want to call off blockade. Gen. Clay's report is so gloomy it probably will never be published. It (court-martial) will be another battle of the brass Army would like to keep quiet--very much. Two U.S. Senators are quietly investigating very peculiar activity of U.S. Naval Attache in Franco Spain. Now, it is apparent occupation (of Japan) may last for years. It (report on Greece) is very embarrassing to them (State Department and the Military) (20).

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

CHARLES WOOD (ABC-This Week Around the World):...By Saturday, Johnson already had eliminated nine committees and boards of the Armed Services as useless. James Forrestal had been unable to end bickering of the Services because his Office was understaffed, but on Saturday Pres. Truman signed into law a bill creating an Under Secretary of Defense, giving Johnson the strength he needed to do the job thereby...In 1936, Johnson became Assistant Secretary of War under Pres. Roosevelt. He proved himself a hard-working, competent administrator, plugging for preparedness at a time when such action was extremely unpopular...Johnson's appointment is looked upon by many as a political favor for services rendered. But there are few who deny his competence for the job.
3 April 1949-1

DREW PEARSON (ABC): The Navy Department: Former Sec. of Defense Forrestal will be appointed a $1-a-year man and given a Navy airplane for a cruise around the world, chiefly on a vacation. While I have been critical of Forrestal in the past, I think he deserves a rest, and I want to congratulate him for the fine way he has cooperated with Louis Johnson, his successor.
3 April 1949-2

CRITICISM

WALTER WINCHELL (ABC): Evanston, Ill.--One of Hitler's top agents is now lecturing at Northwestern University. His name is Edward V. Sitler--it rhymes with Hitler. This man, according to a signed statement from the Northwestern U. campus, continues to expound his Nazi ideas and feelings. This Edward Sitler...was an American citizen. He threw his citizenship away and became a naturalized German when he started to work for Hitler in Berlin as the director of Goebbels' radio section. Atty. Gen. Tom Clark, please, in the name of all the wonderful Americans who died for the rest of us, kick this ingrate out of the country.
3 April 1949-3

BERLIN

ED HAAKER (NBC-News Roundup, from Berlin): Berlin's Russian-licensed press today has let loose with a verbal broadside. For the first time, Russia's German-language papers are commenting on the Soviet memo on Moscow's objections to the North Atlantic pact...Such is the virulence of today's...editorials that again there is...talk over here on the possibility of the USSR quitting the U.N. Such is the virulence of those comments that there can be little doubt that the Russians see in the pact a mighty barrier to their aspirations for world domination.
3 April 1949-4

ROBERT S. ALLEN (MBS): Berlin--Gen. Clay has cabled Washington not to be surprised if Russia suddenly lifts the Berlin blockade.
3 April 1949-5

EFFECTS OF COUNTERBLOCKADE

ED HAAKER (NBC-News Roundup, from Berlin): There is new evidence that our counterblockade is creating economic difficulties, if not economic havoc, in the Russian zone of Germany. Recently, after a trip through the Russian zone, I remarked on the dearth of activity in the Eastern zone industrial cities, and today one report that seems authentic states, in effect, that unemployment there is rising by leaps and bounds...The moot point, of course, is what effect this pinch will have on Russian reasoning. One point of view here is that it will finally force them to come to terms and lift their own blockade of Berlin; the other is that they have such little regard for the well-being of populations that it will have no effect at all.
2 April 1949-6

GERMANY

LYFORD MOORE (ABC-This Week Around the World, from Berlin): Marshal Sokolovsky's successor (Gen. Chukov)...in a quick examination, ...doesn't seem to have any particularly outstanding qualities that would lead to his

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